It bears mentioning that Wind Waker was a rushed instead of being delayed (which is likely why Jabun just straight up gives you the third pearl). But what I think is going on here, in regard to the fear against ZDLC, is that people are worried the creators will make a game that is not a holistic experience, and that getting the "real" game will be locked behind ****ty paywalls and gimmicks. With some of Nintendo's recently bungled decisions, I don't think people are being all that farfetched in having those fears either. And personally I'd be inclined to agree with them. I have yet to see a game like this handle "extra content" well. But… I've seen a lot of them bungle it fantastically. But for the sake of argument, let's look at one or two games that did DLC right. Skyrim was monstrously successful, and it had great DLC. But the reason it worked in that game was because the gameplay of Skyrim is quite modular. In addition, much of your power level in that game is represented by a scaling numerical value (damage output, armor rating, stamina and mana stores, etc.) so things can be "tacked on" without really upsetting anything. And while there was a central story included in the game, you can complete it or not complete it and it largely has no real impact on the gameplay itself. But Zelda games aren't quite like that, they don't have that level of leniency with the gameplay experience. Additionally, much of what determines your strength in Zelda games is gaining a variety of non-numerical powerups along side simply adding heart containers. Gaining new types of weapons and items that aid you in traversal is a bit more of a touchy jenga tower to just toss things onto in a piecemeal, de facto sort of way.
